Nielsen//NetRatings is Launched in Austria.

Business/Technology Editors

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2001

Austrian Internet Users Surfed More Than 6 hours in April

Percentage of Austrian Women Online Beats Global Average

MSN, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Telekom Austria and ORF are

the Most Successful Properties in Austria

Nielsen//NetRatings, the world's fastest-growing Internet audience measurement service, today published its first data on the at-home surfing behavior of Austrian Internet users.

These first Nielsen//NetRatings figures for Austria show that in April, the average Internet user surfed 6 hours and 6 minutes per month. More than 41% of the Austrian Internet audience in April was female, a high percentage of female surfers in comparison to Internet audiences in other European countries. In April, the average surfing session in Austria lasted about 28 minutes, and ad banners had an average click-through rate of 0.44%.

Nielsen//NetRatings tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behavior: who's online, where they're going, what ads they're viewing and clicking on and how much time they spend. This information is derived from randomly selected consumer panels, continually refreshed to reflect the most current Internet universe. With the launch of Nielsen//NetRatings in Austria, the Nielsen//NetRatings service is now available in 13 European countries, providing advertisers, websites, advertising agencies, media buyers, venture capitalists and Internet analysts with access to timely, accurate and extensive information on the Austrian Internet population. The service also includes Nielsen//NetRatings' exclusive BannerTrack(TM) online advertising measurement system.

Michael Schneider, Sales & Marketing Director ACNielsen eRatings.com Austria, stated: "Nielsen//NetRatings will contribute to the development of the Internet in Austria by bringing high-quality, objective measurement to this medium. Our research is conducted with the highest regard for accuracy, using the same recruitment and measurement techniques in every market we measure. Nielsen//NetRatings allows the Internet professional to apply marketing techniques from the offline media to the Internet market, and places Austrian Internet user behavior in a more European and global context, which will allow the large international advertisers to easily include the Austrian online market into their media plans."

Peter Wilcox, Managing Director Europe for ACNielsen eRatings.com, said: "The reaction of the Austrian market to Nielsen//NetRatings is very positive. Even before the first Austrian data were available, we already had a number of strategic clients from different Internet related sectors committed to our Audience Measurement Services. By providing Internet audience measurement for this important market, we are also pleased to extend our industry-leading coverage to 13 countries in Europe and 23 countries around the world, which is the largest geographic footprint of any measurement company."

Table 1:
Nielsen//NetRatings: Average Usage, Austria, At-Home, April 2001

                                Austria      USA        Germany

Number of sessions per month      13          19            17

Page views per month             603          651          797

Page views per surfing
 session                          47          35            48

Time spent per month         6:06:07      9:33:13      8:08:40

Time spent during
 surfing session               28:25        30:35        29:28

Duration of a page viewed      00:36        00:52        00:37

Active Internet Universe   1,255,100   103,056,000   13,007,700

Current Internet
 Universe Estimate         2,796,600   167,479,200   24,634,000

      During April 2001, 2,769,610 people in Austria had access to the
Internet from their home PC. During that month, the average connection
time per person was 6 hours and 6 minutes. Austrian surfers used the
Internet an average of 13 times in April, surfing around 28 minutes
per session and visiting an average of 47 pages for 36 seconds per
page. In comparison, the German Internet user visited 48 pages per
session in April, the US user 35.
      The Austrian Internet audience for April 2001 consisted of nearly
59% men and 41% women; a high proportion of women when compared to the
global average percentage of women using the Internet, which is around
38%. The Nordic countries lead in this respect, particularly in
Finland, where 46% of the Internet audience is female. On average,
Austrian men accessed the Internet 15 times in April for a total of 7
hours and 8 minutes. The female Internet users went online 10 times
for a total of only 4 hours and 36 minutes. Men viewed an average of
702 web pages and women 449 pages.

Table 2:
Nielsen//NetRatings: Top 10 Properties, Austria, At-Home, April 2001


Property     Rank      Unique   Time per   Page Views    Rank By Page
           By Unique  Audience   person                    Views
           Audience

MSN             1   508,500    0:17:38    19,101,000          5

Yahoo!          2   437,900    0:17:33    20,714,000          3

Microsoft       3   435,500    0:04:38     5,320,000         16

Telekom Austria 4   388,800    0:10:56    13,937,000          6

ORF             5   384,600    0:26:36    19,664,000          4

Universal
 Communications 6   343,800    0:34:37    38,356,000          1

Lycos Network   7   289,400    0:07:27     6,201,000         13

AOL Time Warner 8   258,200    0:06:56     3,566,000         21

Google          9   256,900    0:14:18    12,369,000          7

Alta Vista     10   214,800    0:08:13     5,714,000         14

MSN, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Telecom Austria and ORF were the most successful properties in Austria for April 2001. Universal Communications, Lycos Network, AOL Time Warner, Google and Alta Vista were also among the top 10 most visited properties for the month.

During April 2001, the most visited categories in Austria were search engines and portals, telecom and Internet services and news and information sites. Within the category of news and information, orf.at (384,565) and krone.at (180,305) showed strong unique audience numbers. With a unique audience of 150,792, amazon.de held the leading position among Austrian shopping sites, with lion.cc and ebay.de in second and third place.

The average click-through rate for ad banners was 0.44% in Austria, which ranks slightly higher than the worldwide average of 0.41%. In the UK and Finland the ad banner click-through rate is 0.31%, and in the US the click-through rate is 0.32%. In contrast, Spain and Germany have higher click-through rates of 0.59% and 0.53%.

About Nielsen//NetRatings

Nielsen//NetRatings reports on Internet audiences and advertising in 23 countries worldwide, representing nearly 90 percent of the global Internet audience universe. In addition to Austria, the countries are: the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan and Belgium. The total estimated Internet audience universe in these countries is nearly 379 million individuals.

Through strategic partnerships between NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, the Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement service collects real-time data from more than 220,000 individuals with access to the Internet around the world. The U.S. panel sample currently consists of 62,000 individuals with Internet access at home and 8,000 individuals with Internet access at work. International panels are under development with over 150,000 individuals with access at home currently being measured.

Nielsen//NetRatings uses unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the global marketplace. Nielsen//NetRatings tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behaviour, leveraging proprietary data-collection technology from NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research's 50 years of expertise in research and audience measurement, and ACNielsen's international leadership in offering market research information covering more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

About ACNielsen eRatings.com

ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen and NetRatings Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT). ACNielsen, a company of VNU N.V., is the world's leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behaviour, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries. NetRatings is the leading provider of Internet audience measurement technology and analysis. Through the Nielsen//NetRatings service, ACNielsen eRatings.com is creating the first global service for tracking audiences, advertising and user activity on the Internet in more than 30 countries worldwide.

About NetRatings, Inc.

NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT) provides Internet audience measurement and analysis services that enable its customers to make informed decisions regarding their Internet strategies. NetRatings delivers accurate and timely information collected from a representative sample of Internet users and augments it with detailed, flexible reporting and in-depth analyses.